Breaking down gender roles, one role at a time.

Because we can’t watch everything…

…I came across some great coverage of The Dresden Files from QueerTransGeek [blog since deleted]. I’m not even going to attempt to sum up anything because you should really go there and read the whole thing. QTG examines both the stereotypical roles a lot of the females are resigned to, but also points out that this is one of the few shows in its genre than even bothers to feature lesbian or bi- characters (even if they’re laden with stereotypes in many cases, too).

Even if you’ve never seen the show, the article provides a lot of food for thought.

And The Happy Femimist is back after a hiatus (yay!) with a review of The Wicker Man. Actually, it’s not so much a review as a send-up of the misogynistic themes, which become unintentionally funny as the poorly executed film struggles along. If you’ve ever wondered where in the world men are coming from when they claim that women have all the power with their ability to use sex and birthin’ against men, this post covers one example of the textbook of Woman Blamers 101.

LOL, it’s okay. I added something too, but I’ll bring it over here, so discussion can spring up where it will:

You asked why they had to turn Murphy into a single mom when she wasn’t in the books. Why they want to give women with dangerous jobs kids.

I suggested that maybe they think it proves she’s heterosexual. To this day, I wonder if that’s why they made an embarrassing big deal of Sam Carter’s lovelife on Stargate: because they were afraid the target audience would assume a woman who voluntarily runs around playing with guns and science gizmos is gay… and take issue with that? It’s possible.

Or else, as you more or less said, it just “softens” her so that she doesn’t terrify them so much anymore.

That’s actually a point that I never thought about! But, well, if you’re going to stereotype someone, the fact that Sam had short hair likely didn’t help in that respect. Because, naturally, if you have short hair as a woman, you like girls. And if you play with guns and have short hair? Well, you’re just flaming gay then. *Rolls eyes*

I find it interesting with Murphy though, as in the books she’s depicted with very feminine physical features (long blonde hair, short, petite)… who just happens to kick lots and lots of butt.

In the TV series, she’s brunette, tall, and a mommy. Perhaps the mommy puts the feminine back in her there? *Shrug*

Link is gone! ;_; I was looking for a crit of the Dresden Files too. Never read the books, but I enjoyed the series a great deal.

I thought Murphy’s single motherhood might have been added to add something else to her character to further drive in the idea that “this pairing is so not a good idea”. But it was odd because she didn’t actually SAY all that much about her daughter – granted, things were kept professional between her and Harry (heh) but still, it might have been nice to round Murphy out a bit more in that direction if they were going to have her as a single mom.

However, despite loving Murphy, Bianca and Harry’s relationships with them, it fails to pass the Bechdel test and a number of other feminist-y criteria. Something I hoped Season Two would fix. But didn’t. *sigh* (It pisses me off because this was one of the few shows I could genuinely get into that wasn’t an established fandom among my friends.)